Category: Testimony

Since Last We Spoke, 9/23/13

Post author By Jen
Post date September 23, 2013

A Happy Monday to you all (or Tuesday for my subscribers who get this one day late)–I am finally back from Japan after a longer-than-anticipated trial and am thrilled to be home for the next 5 days. Hopefully some of you will be joining my colleague Jen Sommers and me on Wednesday for our webinar (a very clinically-focused session). And speaking of that webinar: a special congratulations to a member of our IHS project team–Sarah had her baby on Saturday–Noah James. If you’ve seen the photos on Facebook than you can back me on this–she grew herself a good looking baby boy.

I put in some long days in Japan, but had plenty of time to read while jet lagged out of my skull this morning, so here’s what I’ve been checking out since last we spoke:

Sexual Assault Testimony

When There Is No Science to Support Your Opinion

Post author By Jen
Post date August 15, 2013
5 Comments on When There Is No Science to Support Your Opinion

In the course of doing this work, I come across a lot of expert opinions, given by both physicians and nurses. Some of those opinions are well reasoned and supported by current science and clinical experience. Some of those opinions fall into the category I formally call, “making some s*@t up”. Opinions delivered under the latter category aren’t necessarily delivered with the intent to deceive. A lot of times these opinions are simply based on what the professional believes should be true, rather than what research has affirmed.

Sexual Assault Testimony

UPDATED: Consensual Sex Injury Research Grid

Post author By Jen
Post date June 26, 2013

The single most read item on this site is now the consensual sex injury research grid. I try to be vigilant with maintaining it, because in adult sexual assault cases, there probably isn’t a more important body of research (in my opinion, at least). So a new study on the issue means a new update. Click on the link to download and/or print the full grid. Research is listed from oldest to newest.

Consensual Sex Injuries revised 6-13

Testimony

Testifying to an Opinion: A Flow Chart

Post author By Jen
Post date June 25, 2013
2 Comments on Testifying to an Opinion: A Flow Chart

I spend a lot of time thinking about expert testimony. I know it can be intimidating, but as with so much in healthcare, it’s a skill that can be developed and fine-tuned. However, in order to achieve competence it’s important to understand the fundamentals. My hope is that what I’ve created here is a usable tool for individual practitioners and those of you providing education to others on this topic. Feel free to share.

Testimony

Court (The Reality)

Post author By Jen
Post date April 10, 2013

We spent the day talking about testimony. One of the things we discussed was that sometimes the experience looks a lot more like Night Court than Law and Order. One of my new favorite Tumblrs has a similar take on the difference between the common perception of court and the reality of court.

Thank you, Fort Bragg for a wonderful day. See you in September.

DV/IPV Sexual Assault Testimony

Since Last We Spoke, 3/11/13

Post author By Jen
Post date March 11, 2013

This weekend gave us a glimpse of spring here in the DC area, so I spent as much time as possible outside. However, I am prepping for a quick trip to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area (hope to some of you there–we’ll be talking about testimony, one of my favorite subjects!), so I wasn’t entirely unplugged. Here’s a look at some of what I’ve been reading since last we spoke:

Sexual Assault Testimony

SANE-A Mini-Prep Course

I will be doing a lunchtime SANE-A mini-prep course for IAFN’s next webinar. It will be held September 27th from 12-1:30 pm and will cost $15 ($30 for non-members), which also nets you one CEU. It’s important to note that this session will only concentrate on the two areas of the exam that have traditionally been most troubling for exam takers: patient assessment and interaction with the judicial process (hence the mini part of mini-prep course).

Articles of Note Child Abuse DV/IPV Elder Abuse/Neglect Sexual Assault Testimony

Articles of Note: August/September Edition

Post author By Jen
Post date September 4, 2012
1 Comment on Articles of Note: August/September Edition

How is it possible I went most of the summer without posting one of these? Embarrassing. What follows is what’s caught my eye from the August/September/October journals (with a couple of late July articles tossed in for good measure). As always, this is not an exhaustive list, but I do have to say, it’s a pretty good one. There’s a lot of great looking research among this group of pubs.

Child Abuse Sexual Assault Testimony

Clinical Guide: Court Testimony

Post author By Jen
Post date June 5, 2012
1 Comment on Clinical Guide: Court Testimony

As promised, a clinical guide on issues related to testimony. Please let me know if I have left something out and it can be added in. Every attempt will be made to update this guide on a regular basis.

Testimony

10 Things: Testimony

Since the webinar I’ve had many questions about some of my go-to resources and general tips about testifying. So here are some of the things I think are important about testimony. But keep in mind, these are just *my* 10–I know that many FHO readers have plenty of experience with testimony, so please add your tips (shy people), to make this an even richer discussion.

Sexual Assault Testimony

Ethical & Effective Testimony Webinar Recording

Post author By Jen
Post date April 12, 2012

We presented the Ethical and Effective Testimony webinar the other ~~morning at 3am, Korea time~~ day; it’s now archived on the SAFEta site. The handouts are also available.

Stay tuned–the next FHO clinical guide will be one on court testimony.

Tags expert witness, testimony

Sexual Assault Testimony

Ethical and Effective Testimony

Post author By Jen
Post date March 5, 2012

I will be doing a webinar on Ethical and Effective Testimony (along with AEQ Director, Jennifer Long) for SAFEta Source. The session will be held April 10th from 2-3:30pm ET and is free. You can register here. This is one of my all time favorite topics to discuss, so hopefully we’ll be seeing many of you there!

UPDATE: Archived versions available here.

Testimony

10 Things: The FHO Expert Witness Bill of Rights

Post author By Jen
Post date July 14, 2011
1 Comment on 10 Things: The FHO Expert Witness Bill of Rights

I am consulting on a couple cases right now, so testimony is on my mind. Today I am going to post my Expert Witness’ Bill of Rights. By all means, please do add to this if you come up with any I have missed. Also remember, this is opinion and opinion only. Just because I think it’s true doesn’t mean you will agree, or that the attorneys you work with will care what I think (in fact I’d say it’s a solid bet that they won’t). So, with all those caveats, here are what I consider to be essential considerations for taking on the role of expert witness:

Testimony

Nurse Expert Witness: The Basics and Beyond

Post author By Jen
Post date June 30, 2011

Oh, I do love a good expert witness webinar. And IAFN and AALNC are offering a joint one Auguts 17th at 3pm ET, The Nurse Expert Witness: The Basics and Beyond (plus they’re offering CEUs). Registration’s not yet open for this event, but it’s worth getting on your calendar, and I will update the page when it becomes available .

Child Abuse Sexual Assault Testimony

Child Fatalities

Post author By Jen
Post date June 29, 2011

I have a lot of respected friends and colleagues who care for pediatric abusive head trauma and sexual abuse patients. And I have a lot of respected friends and colleagues who prosecute these cases. So I will be interested in feedback about this particular Frontline program (it debuted last night on PBS) that looks at child fatalities and its central premise that some forensic pathologists are ill-equipped to fully explore cause of death in child cases where abuse is suspected.

Testimony

Performance Evaluation + a Cool Webinar for our Attorney Friends

Post author By Jen
Post date January 31, 2011

Okay, gang, commence with the collective eye rolling: time once again for an evaluation offering. I know, I know–not the most popular of subjects on this site. And yet, I still force feed you them. Why? One, because I’m a giant nerd, and I think evaluation is cool and super interesting; and two, you can’t sustain something if you aren’t sure it’s getting the job done, or you don’t know how to be better at what you’re already doing. So a whole bunch of folks are putting on a live webinar on evaluating organization performance, and perhaps you’d like to attend.

Sexual Assault Testimony

Clinical Guide: Consensual Sex Injury

Post author By Jen
Post date September 22, 2010
2 Comments on Clinical Guide: Consensual Sex Injury

As part of the process of writing a book chapter on injuries obtained during consensual sexual intercourse, I put together a grid of the research that looks at this issue. I figured I’d go ahead and post it after some lengthy conversation today during a 2 hour Q&A session with Army defense counsel. Understanding what the research does (and doesn’t say) about this topic is incredibly useful, although, to be clear, the research is still somewhat limited.

Child Abuse Sexual Assault Testimony

Suggestability

Post author By Jen
Post date September 9, 2010

First off, a thank you to everyone on the testimony webinar yesterday. What a fantastic turnout! And some really great questions, as well.

Over at NCPTC, they have a webinar next week on suggestability. It will take place September 16th at 3pm CT, and cost is $10. I’m not a peds person, but I looked at the slides (PDF), and I have to confess, I found the research and the discussion in them pretty fascinating.

Testimony

Physician Expert Testimony

Post author By Jen
Post date August 26, 2010

Medscape has an interesting CME case study on physician expert testimony. And when I say interesting, I mean that it touches on a couple issues (albeit briefly) that are relevant to anyone providing this service, physician or nurse. Specifically, it touches on the notion that expert testimony should be subject to peer review, and that professional organizations have a responsibility to ensure that their members provide quality testimony. The article actually refers to case law that supports this, although I’m not certain the authors don’t overstate their case just a bit on this point.

Testimony

Court Testimony

Post author By Jen
Post date August 10, 2010

And now for a wee bit of self-promotion: one of my AEQ partners, Jeff Greipp, and I will be teaching a webinar on court testimony, Wednesday September 8th from 2-3pm ET. It’s being hosted by IAFN, and cost for members is $40 ($50 for non-members). This will net you CEUs, so it’s a good deal. Plus we’ll be talking practicalities related to evidence-based, ethical testimony, so that’s always a relevant discussion.

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